US Microreactor Company Invests in Laser Enrichment of Uranium
The US microreactor technology company NANO Nuclear Energy Inc announced the cooperation with LIS Technologies (LIST) privately owned laser enrichment company. This collaboration will reinvigorate the USA’s domestic uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication capabilities.
A strategic agreement between the two companies will see the companies collaborate on advancing LIST’s enrichment technology as it continues its development and moves towards the regulatory licensing process. LIST will ultimately provide NANO Nuclear with quantities of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) fuel for use in NANO Nuclear’s advanced portable microreactors in development. NANO Nuclear will develop supportive capabilities, including deconversion and fuel fabrication facilities, to incorporate LIST’s enriched UF6 into an integrated fuel manufacturing process to provide fuel for both NANO microreactor systems and the entire nuclear energy industry as a whole.
LIST’s technology uses infrared wavelengths to selectively excite the molecules of desired isotopes to separate them from other isotopes in the process of enrichment. This technique can also be used for the production of stable isotopes for medical and scientific research and can be used in the development of quantum calculations for semiconductor technologies. The NANO company considers that the LIST technology has the potential to be licensed and able to produce commercial amounts of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for ten years. LIST purchased CRISLA – the developer of the patented advanced laser technology – in august 2023 and describes itself as the only USA-origin and patented laser uranium enrichment company.